Unchosen Champion

The Yucatan settlement was massive. Coop knew it would be, but he was still caught by surprise at the sheer scale demonstrated by the Cult of Chakyum. The settlement leaderboards had given its large population away, yet he hadn’t really appreciated how it had been bolstered by virtue of its location. The only settlement in Central America had drawn a significant number of people, and they had clearly been pulled into the Cult during the process.

In comparison, the number of survivors who had opted to take their chances in the wild, like the profession masters of Corozal and the hidden warriors of the Crossroads, was extremely small. The pressures of the assimilation outside of settlement territory were such that even if the original numbers had been split fairly between those who stayed in the Yucatan settlement and those who didn’t, the number that survived would be wildly different. But even before that, the population splits were uneven. It didn’t take much insight into the assimilation to understand that civilization shards were safe harbors and there would be safety in numbers.

When he joined Juliana in escorting her portion of the Jaguar Sun, they had accumulated approximately 100,000 volunteers between Corozal and the start of their march. In the days that they circled the settlement, they had anticipated growing their numbers until it could actually rival the Cult.

At the time, Coop believed them. However, it quickly became apparent that their aspirations wouldn’t be anywhere close to being met. They were already rushed, forcing their campaign to move at a much faster pace than the first time around. Instead of sweeping through the jungles for nearly two months, they only gave themselves two weeks, and that was before considering how much the dynamic of the Yucatan had changed as time went on.

Juliana was stressed by the lack of Priests. The number of strongholds for them to conquer and free groups that would bolster their numbers was too low for her liking, but Coop was impressed by the quantity that managed to join them regardless. All sorts of people connected with the militia, moving through the jungle to catch up from elsewhere or revealing themselves from where they had been hidden to avoid the Cult. It seemed like every time he returned from a patrol, another large influx of hardened warriors had joined the uprising. He would have guessed the Jaguar Sun multiplied their numbers by four times over the course of their procession. It was an unbelievable feat, in Coop’s mind, and he was encouraged by their support. It was certainly the largest army he had ever seen. Before he gazed upon the first gathering of the Cult of Chakrum, he had started to believe the Jaguar Sun had grown into an unstoppable force.

Prior to the assimilation, there had been roughly two hundred million people in all of Central America. After Coop upgraded Ghost Reef, he and Jones had briefly estimated how many humans were left. If even their pessimistic estimates were vaguely correct, there would be approximately twenty million remaining in the entire region. A sizable portion of the survivors had joined Chakyum, and they had gathered together in his name within the Yucatan settlement.

The Envoy and the High Priests had tried to explain to Coop that those who accepted Chakyum would be saved, but in the back of his mind, Coop had always suspected that they were simple sacrifices left in the dust to fuel the Cult’s rise. However, judging by the Cult’s numbers, his prediction wasn’t exactly accurate. There were other mechanisms at play.

He wasn’t completely ready to admit that they were wrong about sacrifices, at least about those who became residents of the Yucatan settlement. It wasn’t like sheep were immediately led to slaughter. They were fattened up first. But, when he finally laid eyes on the settlement, it was truly enormous. Chakyum’s flock was a significant force.

Coop understood there had been huge gatherings throughout history, but he had never witnessed anything quite so extreme as the collection of people occupying the settlement. In the pre-mana past, large gatherings had come in many forms: religious processions, funerals for prominent people, national celebrations, and holy pilgrimages. To see a gathering so large in person had him doubting many of his assumptions, but most of all, in the chances of the Jaguar Sun. The first gathering of Chakyum could rival some of the biggest groupings of people ever.

Coop had taken to the air, scouting ahead the way the Cloud Dancer would have. Mobility skills remained a rarity, in his experience, with those he had witnessed being one of two flavors. They were either capable of rapid short distance movements, like those demonstrated by the High Priestess, Ak-Hau, where she swapped with her water orbs, or heavily dependent on Agility, like the High Priest, Kul-Hau, the Voice of Kukulkan’s simple speed. If anything, Coop’s mistjumps were merely short distance movements, but they were enhanced by his stacked Strength which completely broke the scaling and allowed the ability to be useful for both short and long distances.

The Yucatan settlement was centered around a surprisingly symmetrical, circular lake in what had once been a protected jungle. The settlement’s territory expanded well beyond borders, starting a mere 10 miles inside of Guatemala and spreading far into Mexico to the northeast, the edges of Belize, Honduras, El Salvador to the west, and out into the Pacific Ocean to the south. If he carved out a generous territory to represent the entire Yucatan, the settlement would be right on the interior corner as his made up sections extended into the interior of Central America.

Vast swathes of forest had been cleared out in the settlement proper, leaving scattered trees in between partially completed stone temple-like structures abutting wide footpaths. The jungle canopy was replaced with mostly flat land, criss-crossed by roads that were layered with woven material. The trails formed the arterial corridors of an enormous primitive city.

It seemed like they had planned to develop the settlement into a strange approximation of the ancient cities that existed before Europeans arrived on the shores of Central America, but had barely gotten started. The entire settlement was filled to the brim with people, but there were only a few completed buildings in sight.

One massive project was clearly given far more priority than the rest. A gigantic open-topped ziggurat had been built in the center of the circular lake, rising straight from the fresh water depths. It was unlike any of the ancient pyramids Coop had already seen, being a new construction, and partially submerged. Massive blocks of smooth stone had been carefully stacked, and intricate carvings decorated the edges, creating a bold outline on the light colored material. At the top, each corner was marked by an enormous black segmented obelisk that curled inwards toward the center. The top itself was large enough to hold an entire football stadium, but it was relatively featureless as if it was leaving room for further expansion.

If any of the locals had told him the settlement was building such a thing, he would have made it his destination right away as it was clearly the influence of the Cult that had driven its design, but it was obviously brand new. In fact, judging by the incomplete city, Coop suspected that it had been partially constructed with materials that had been previously used to shelter the resident population. The incomplete buildings that filled entire blocks had been picked apart in order to feed the pyramid in the center. The project could only have been done in the last few weeks while the Jaguar Sun was in the process of rising.

The residents of Corozal had no idea what had happened in the time after the first days of the assimilation. The Cult of Chakyum had gone from a nebulous force that held some influence over the civilization shard to clearly having a firm grip on the entire territory. Coop surmised that the full conversion must have occurred at least as long ago as the siege event, given the handle the Cult had on the settlement. The diversion of resources made it clear that the Cult lacked any interest in the long term health of the settlement. By dismantling the shelters, it was obvious that the Cult had other motives aside from controlling the civilization shard.

It was more evidence of the truth behind the pitches he had heard from the various representatives of the Cult. They ranked the health of the settlements low compared to the accumulation of power through experience.

The main structure in the center of the lake was connected to the rest of the city with four wide bridges, one at each ordinal direction. From above, the lake appeared to have a giant ‘X’ superimposed on the surface of the water. The stone pyramid seemed to have grown straight from the bottom of the lake and Coop couldn’t help but wonder how they managed it.

The northwest bridge was closest to Juliana’s position, but each entrance seemed equidistant from the edges of the development. All four connections were completely empty, in contrast to the rest of the city. People stood right at the edges, but stayed off as though there was an invisible barrier preventing them from moving forward. Whether that barrier was physically created by mana or simply due to their firmly held respect for their leaders was anyone’s guess.

The residents all wore similar clothing, as if the Cult had a uniform of grayish robes, and to make matters worse, they were all standing silently, shoulder to shoulder, while facing the building in the center of the lake. Even far from the center of the settlement, where people had no chance of getting a clear look at the magnificent structure, they still stared into the distance as if they could. Millions of people arranged symmetrically around a central feature was simply uncanny. Coop was freaked out by the simple motionless display conducted by such a massive group of people.

At first, Coop thought it was some kind of mass mind control. Hypnosis or something similar might explain the uniform behavior, and Coop had to suspect such a thing would be possible with mana, but it didn’t take long for him to be noticed and for them to react in a more human way.

Many of the Cult’s Acolytes broke formation to point into the sky when they spotted Coop falling through the clouds. They weren’t of one mind, but they were disciplined enough to create the enormous formation in the first place. The murmuring that occurred as they realized they were being watched from above didn’t rise to the level expected from millions, but it was discomfiting being the subject of so much attention. These people weren’t mind controlled, they were believers. As Coop made the realization, he winced, as his experience with zealots was never positive. Not ever.

Meanwhile, from their perspective, Coop must have looked like a video game character lagging out while dropping in. He rolled so that his back faced the ground and threw his spear high into the air, mistjumped far enough that he wouldn’t be more than a speck against the blue sky, and let himself fall like a skydiver waiting to release his parachute while he assessed the settlement. After several seconds, he repeated the process. He was constantly falling, but he’d never come anywhere close to the ground.

Obviously, it would have been better if he could transform into a diminutive tropical bird and go unnoticed, but they had to make do with what they had. Him being spotted was deemed a reasonable part of the plan. The Tide Priestess had been convinced that Coop was the reason for the gathering, so there he was. They were providing exactly what the Cult anticipated, lulling them with their own expectations. Probably.

Simultaneously, they were giving a prearranged signal to Tzultacaj and his army. They would know Juliana had arrived if they spotted Coop as well. Given how much attention he was receiving among the crowd, he suspected the rest of the Jaguar Sun’s twin army would be aware of their arrival soon enough.

In the center of the lake on top of the pyramid, a handful of individuals stood by themselves while surrounding the uncovered civilization shard, calmly watching Coop’s progress. Coop made the logical assumption that they were the High Priests. As expected, he counted five. The four he had already defeated were absent. He wasn’t sure if he was hoping for more. If there was at least one extra, he could reasonably conclude they would be Chakyum. If the leader of the Cult wasn’t one of the High Priests, he could be anywhere.

Coop prepared to return to the ground and inform Juliana of what he had seen, but before he mistjumped to his waiting shield, he spotted several individuals shooting toward him. Of course, no matter how rare mobility skills were, in a crowd of millions, a few would demonstrate such abilities. In this case, three had wings and two propelled themselves from their feet, flying up towards Coop in a tight formation.

Coop only hesitated long enough to inspect the first of the approaching fliers with Presence of Mind, letting their initial salvo of feathers miss him wide right as he fell in the sky.

[Oathsworn Human (Level 145)]

[Wing Snatcher (Agility)]

[Chosen of the Wings of Xelera]

[Tailwind (Afflicted)]

The Oathsworn Human seemed to be in the process of leaving humanity behind. She appeared to be more of a harpy at this point, with bird-like features from the waist down, and large wings replacing her arms as they flapped in the wind. She had a healthy dose of brown feathers and matching talons emerging from rough scaly skin.

When Coop threw his spear in response, she screeched and folded her wings in a desperate maneuver to avoid the missile. She whirled through the air, spinning like a corkscrew.

She succeeded in dodging the spear, but not entirely by her own volition. Coop had aimed lower, targeting the second enemy with his preliminary attack. The spear caught the slightly slower pursuer by surprise as the man expected the first attacker to draw Coop’s entire attention.

Coop’s throw would have gone above the rest of the squad if he had aimed directly at the harpy, but when the harpy dodged, she opened up a window for the second man to be caught by surprise. He flew while leaving a trail of smoke from the soles of his feet, but the propulsion immediately ceased when he caught the spear through his chest, killing him instantly while he still watched the feathers of his leader.

Coop mistjumped to his spear in the midst of three more rising foes, as their ally’s blood spilled into the air and his body disintegrated. Coop, instead of pulling his weapon free from the shrinking corpse, quickswapped it for his sword as he momentarily appeared in melee range.

He swept the sharp ethereal edge across the neck of the next wingless flier, and flipped the sword back up into the air as the other two overshot their target. Closing the 50 yard gap in an instant caught them by surprise. His abrupt appearance adjacent to them had been the opposite of what they expected to happen. They were all geared up for a pursuit, but Coop closed the gap himself. He was making a statement.

Coop mistjumped to his rotating sword as it flipped upwards and stabbed another Cultist through the back, right between his own leathery demon wings while his head swiveled in search of Coop at his rear.

By the time the harpy had whirled around, Coop had removed the wings of the final trailing Oathsworn, letting the body fall toward the settlement as it disintegrated, leaving the harpy alone with him in the skies.

She fired a series of feathers toward Coop, fanning them out like throwing knives, but Coop raised his forearm to catch the three that would have struck his face and let the others whiz by as he let himself fall.

The Priest fully expanded her wings, drawing them to their entire length as she caught the wind and hovered while Coop fell, deciding to keep her distance. Coop threw his sword in her direction, letting it flip repeatedly. She smirked condescendingly as his blade had no chance of reaching her.

When Coop mistjumped to the weapon, putting himself a half a dozen yards beneath the harpy, she prepared another volley of feathers, folding one of her wings across her chest. It was the last motion she made before a phantasm appeared above her, lopping off her head with his own phantasmal sword as he burst out of the mists and began falling.

Coop swapped to his spear, dismissing the phantasm rather than letting the ghost fall all the way to the ground and watched as the harpy’s sinking body left a trail of smoke that shot toward the temple in the middle of the lake. Coop frowned as he mistjumped to his distant shield, leaving the settlement behind after officially declaring war.

Seeing the mana smoke evacuate from the harpy’s body and fly toward the temple reminded him of the other times he had defeated a member of the Cult of Chakyum and witnessed similarly strange behavior demonstrated by escaping mana. His thoughts were finally connecting the oddities observed after killing the Cultists and the seemingly inadequate levels he received.

Previously, he had watched as unbound mana departed into the sky. This was the first time he had seen the mana have an apparent destination. It was like the mana from the kill was siphoned away. He had to recall all the way back to when the phantoms first started training to remember the actual mechanism for leveling and why the mana smoke was relevant at all. The phantoms were already fully saturated with mana and needed to refine it by training in order to level, but regular humans needed to absorb and integrate mana if they wanted to progress. Perhaps the Cult’s pyramid scheme of experience was also monopolizing what they accumulated.

After almost a full minute of observing the monochromatic world of misty mana slowly shift through his vision while contemplating the Cult, he reappeared on the forest floor, far from the settlement, where Juliana and Felix were impatiently waiting.

Juliana let out a breath she had been holding and started to bombard Coop with questions. “What happened? Did you see Tzultacaj? How many were there? Hey! You’re bleeding!”

Coop ignored her questions for the moment, checking his forearm. He plucked three feathers that had embedded into his flesh, surprised by their sharpness, and flicked them away while deciding that the Cult’s machinations weren’t what they needed to be worried about at the moment.

“It’s alright. I could have avoided them, but I had already shown them plenty. I’m literally at full health.” Coop patiently explained.

He checked his notifications while he considered how to reveal the status of the settlement.

[You defeated Oathsworn Human (Level 80)]

[You defeated Oathsworn Human (Level 97)]

[You defeated Oathsworn Human (Level 139)]

[You defeated Oathsworn Human (Level 87)]

[You defeated Oathsworn Human (Level 145)]

“Damn.” He muttered in disappointment.

Coop hadn’t actually noticed any of the flashes that would indicate he leveled, but he had been secretly hoping he would reach the next skill threshold at level 200. He wouldn’t have bothered engaging with the small squad of Oathsworn if not for how close his level was to the next major point in his progression.

“Looks like I took out two more Priests.” Coop started. “But I’m gonna be honest. I think you should call the whole thing off. Retreat now. That Cult is ridiculous.” He warned.

Juliana just looked at him sideways for a moment before responding. “So you finally understand what we’re up against?” She frowned and shook her head sadly. “We already knew. Every single person here understands the stakes. We know the scale of their influence. We know what it means to defy them, but we also know what it means if we don’t.” She scowled and Felix growled along with her, mirroring her energy. “They can’t be allowed to continue or they’ll spread their corruption across the whole world. We don’t have any other choice.” She sighed the kind of deep sigh that revealed how exhausted she actually was, though she rarely let it show.

Coop chewed on his lip as he tried to come up with a convincing plan that would let him end the war before the battle started while compelling the Jaguar Sun to stay within his safer territory. He hadn’t spotted Chakyum, but there were five High Priests and a civilization shard exposed in a way that might give him a chance to strike a decisive blow on his own.

While he was trying to decide if he could have defeated the Mushroom King, Huracan, Kukulkan, and the Tidesinger all at the same time, by himself, a distant explosion erupted. His head swiveled along with Felix’s ears.

“Looks like Tzultacaj got the message. Mateo’s already getting started.” She looked back at Coop as more explosions chained together on the opposite side of the settlement, drawing closer with each burst. “We’re going.” She declared, reenergized with the starting bell of her final bout.

“Alright.” Coop agreed. They had already refused his previous offers, and it was too late for last minute deals to convince them to change course. He watched her back as she rushed to spread the word among the lieutenants that the final stage of their guerilla war would begin.

Coop swapped his sword back to his spear and prepared for battle. No matter how he looked at it, he wouldn’t have been able to shut the Cult down by himself. Even if he could kill all the High Priests at once, claim the shard, and defeat Chakyum, what would he do about the millions of Acolytes? When had a zealot ever surrendered?

He took a deep breath and sent his spear back into the sky to take his place on the battlefield.